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The Gulidjan language was first identified in 1839, although much of the detail and vocabulary has been lost, there is sufficient to confirm that it constituted a separate language. About 100 words of the Gulidjan language have survived. Some analysis suggests it may be a mixed language or creole language having something in common with each of the neighboring languages. The word Colac/Kokak derives from the Gulidjan word kulak (sand)[4] and the suffix -gnat. The ethnonym was analysed by James Dawson, who transcribed it as Kolakgnat, to mean 'belonging to sand'.[5][2]

Roughly 200 words and the translated text of the Lord's Prayer survive from the Gulidjan language.[6]

The Gulidjan, like other Victorian tribes, lived for tens of thousands of years carrying out a semi-nomadic subsistence lifestyle with a system of lore and spirituality interwoven with a sense of place and their role in the geographical landscape.[citation needed]

The Gulidjan people were hit hard by the European invasion and settlement of their land shortly after the Foundation of Melbourne. For 3 years the Gulidjan actively resisted settlement by driving off livestock and raiding stations. Such raids inevitably brought retribution by parties of settlers with violent clashes ensuing. According to Jan Critchett's study an estimated 300-350 aborigines had been murdered by whites in the 14 years from 1834 to 1848 during the colonial settlement of the Western District.[7] The deaths of Joseph Gellibrand and George Hesse in 1837 - their fate remains a mystery to this day - were blamed on the Gulidjan with retribution delivered by a settler party accompanied by some Wathaurong people, and killed several Gulidjan people.[8]Ian Clark reports on three documented attacks in 1839-1840 resulting in Aboriginal deaths.[b] More often squatters destroyed campsites and took implements as revenge, and by 1839 the Gulidjan changed tactics and began to take jobs on European stations.[8]

The Reverend Francis Tuckfield from the Weslayan Mission Society established a mission station at Birregurra called Buntingdale in Gulidjan territory in 1839. Housing was only provided if tribal families would renounce polygamy.[10] Early conflicts between the Gulidjan and Wathaurong peoples at the mission persuaded the missionaries to concentrate on one language group - the Gulidjan - in 1842. [11] Within three years the mission saw one tribe have its numbers halved, and the impact on the Colac tribe was said to be more drastic.[12] His efforts at converting the Gulidjan to Christian values and a sedentary lifestyle did not meet with much success, and the mission was closed in 1848.[13] At this point, they took refuge at Alexander Dennis Tardwarncourt station.[14]

Hugh Murray who first settled the area in September 1837 claimed in 1853 that the local Gulidjan tribe was small, numbering between 35 and 40.[c][16] By 1850, 43 males and 35 females were counted to be alive.[14] With the influx of people searching for gold in the Victorian gold rush during the early 1850s, by 1858 only 19 Gulidjan were left.[17] Causes of this decline were identified in 1862 as starvation due to European occupation of the best grassed areas of their lands; European diseases such as chicken pox, measles and influenza; association with convicts; and tribal enmity.[citation needed]

In the 1860s a small reserve,Karngun, was established on the Barwon River at Winchelsea for the Gulidjan people. It was maintained until 1875. A house was built for them on the present Colac hospital site, but they preferred living in their traditional mia-mias. In 1872 16 hectares of land were reserved at Elliminyt, south of Colac for the Gulidjan with a brick house erected on the site. The Gulidjan preferred to use the house as a windbreak. Richard Sharp and Jim Crow, both Gulidjan people, established working leases on the site, and their families continued to hold their respective lots until 1948 when the land was sold by the Victorian Lands Department. Descendants of these families continue to live in the local area.[18]

^'There are also a number of spellings such as Colijon, Koligian, Colijan, Kolijin and Koladgin. These suggest a form Gulidjan (alternatively transcribed with an initial k and/or with o as the vowel of the first syllable). The vowel a tends to be pronounced as æ or ε following a palatal such as dj and this probably accounts for the spellings that suggest i in the final syllable.'[2]

^Arthur Lloyd and a cerftain Taylor shot a G man dead in 1839; William Roadknight shot another dead in July of that same year; whites killed another in 1840.[9]

^'The Colac tribe of natives was not numerous when we came here — men, women and children not numbering more than 35 or 40.'[15]

Chapman, Nan (1966). Historic Homes of Western Victoria: Stories of Prominent Pioneering Families of Western Victoria and of their Stately and Gracious Homes, Today Irreplaceable Symbols of a Wilderness Tamed. Colac Herald.

Hebb, Isaac (1970) [First published 1888]. History of Colac and District. Hawthorn Press.

Le Griffon, Heather (2006). Campfires at the Cross: An Account of the Bunting Dale Aboriginal Mission 1839-1951 at Birregurra, Near Colac, Victoria:with a Biography of Francis Tuckfield. Australian Scholarly Publishing. ISBN978-1-740-97112-6.